Feedback on our “The Winter’s Tale” class
1. The most important thing you learned in the class
The bear scene marks a transition from tragedy to comedy I learned that the play involves a comic and a tragic element giving it more importance, and I also learned the connection between the play and mythology. The story as a tragic comedy [tragicomedy] Much more depth and understanding about scenes and ideas I learned that there are many aspects of the play not initially visible first reading I learned about the role of time in the play, and how Shakespeare makes both time changeable and unchangeable. Time is a very important aspect in this play. Plot, themes (i.e. time) I like how the presentation gave a brief summary of the play in the beginning. The brief summary refreshed my memory. Also, I did not know the Greek reference behind the play so that portion was very helpful. I learned that The Winter’s Tale parallels the Greek classics. Also, the absurdity of Shakespeare’s play. The Winter’s Tale isn’t as ridiculous as it seems at first read. Very good representation of the “strangeness” of the play through the stagework -­‐Discussion of art vs. nature and of appearances. -­‐I’ve learned about the art vs. nature contrast. -­‐The most important thing I learned was that Paulina played a key role in helping both Hermione and Leontes. -­‐I learned a lot from my fellow group members on certain areas like art v. nature. 2. The aspect or area of the play or class that is still "muddy" or unclear to you
Was it meant to be ambiguous whether there was magic involved in the last scene? Was Hermione Dead or Alive? That still remains unclear. I am still unclear as to what Shakespeare says about nature and art. I had problems keeping up at first. What is unclear is whether Shakespeare meant for the audience to take something from the story. What is the “point” of The Winter’s Tale More about some of the characters? For some reason there was not a lot of audience discussion. Maybe because of finals coming up. None Nothing-­‐touched on everything -­‐I still don’t understand why Mammilius wanted to play with a different maid, it wasn’t only to feel older. -­‐I feel like our point about the pivot point of the story could have been clearer. -­‐ I am still unsure of what the class concluded about the importance of time. -­‐The clown’s role is still unclear to me -­‐Something that is still unclear is the art vs. nature topic 3. What you enjoyed the most about the presentation
Very good acting and visual portrayal and very thorough, detailed descriptions The scene work Acting! Very good explanation of the major themes of the play. Cute 1-minute thing.
I really like the summary of the play in more than one minute. I also liked the scenes and
the fact that they covered most of the character.
I liked…the “one minute” summary 
I enjoyed the “1-minute” summary at the beginning.
Of course, enjoyable, not boring
Displayed several allusions in the play
The two different enactments of the final scene.
I liked the second version of the last [scene]
I love the bear costume.
-I enjoyed the acting –it was fun to do.
-We had fun with the play, it was important to understand what Shakespeare was trying
to say.
-­‐I’ve enjoyed the “loose” teaching style as everyone in our group was allowed to throw in thoughts spontaneously. -­‐I enjoyed hearing all of the ideas my group members had. -I enjoyed performing.
4. A helpful suggestion for improvements to the presentation
In the beginning you didn’t leave much room for discussion between scenes More interactive discussion and interaction with [audience] A little more input from everyone Maybe not as much talking @ one time? I think it would be better if there were more discussion instead of lecturing Arranging the seat order so all can see the projector screen. You can be better by having more visuals during presentation (during discussion) >_< it would allow people to keep up a bit better A little bit of a more organized presentation Kind of lagged on towards the end -­‐We could have been snappier with the discussion. -­‐We could’ve had our order of topics more fluent. -­‐We tended (or at least I) to talk informally—that could be improved for a presentation (for example no words such as “like”). -­‐Suggestions I had were that we could have been a bit more organized, but it was still good. -­‐We could have better prepared for conversation MIT OpenCourseWare
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21L.010 / 21W.734J Writing with Shakespeare
Fall 2010
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